“Where are you going?”
To saveherbusiness. Because even though it had been passed down to Sam, she was the one who loved and cared about it. She was the one who could turn it into the success her father had envisioned. If she could get the backing, and she suspected she knew where she would find it. “I think we’ve been going about getting investors all wrong, looking to the incorrect people. I believe I know where we should have gone from the beginning.”
Standing within the Duchess of Kingsland’s parlor, Leonora fought not to recall the night when she’d walked into it and discovered Rook was the gent who’d kissed her. The way her heart had sped up, the horror and the gladness that had fought for dominance within her.
Crisp footfalls, those of someone who was as direct and focused as Leonora, echoed down the hallway. The duchess stepped into the parlor. Leonora curtsied. “Your Grace.”
“Oh, please, you must call me Penelope. The Chessmen are a sort of family, and you’ll be marryinginto it soon enough so we should dispense with any formality.”
She didn’t see any reason to alert the duchess that she was in the process of changing those plans. Instead, she cleared her throat and lifted her chin. “I wondered if I might meet with your consortium of lady investors.”
Chapter 24
Elverton Estate
Trying to see things through Nora’s eyes, Rook wandered aimlessly through the estate manor, struck by the notion that life here had never worked properly. The weight of the years clung to it. It had never contained happiness, joy, or laughter. Even now, in spite of its size, it was cloyingly suffocating.
He was grateful Nora wasn’t with him. He didn’t want to contemplate how this place might oppress her spirit.
But what struck him the most was how damned much he missed her. Ever since he’d arrived, he’d had phantom conversations with her, had contemplated all the history he might share with her, all the various items he would hand over to her to take apart: clocks, music boxes, mechanical toys. The damned instrument he’d discovered in a locked room. At first, he’d believed it to be a torture device until he’d found some etchings that showed how a woman would stand in it, bent over, while a man came at her from behind. He supposed his father had entertained some of his lovers within these walls.
Rook wanted to have the entire building stripped of its contents and scrubbed down.
He didn’t want to live here. He wasn’tgoingto livehere. He would lock it up and build another dwelling on the far end of the property, one where more pleasant occurrences would happen. Where all his memories would include Nora and not the father he loathed.
During his journey, he’d decided that he would burn down the crofter’s cottage. But after he’d seen his father interred, he’d ridden to the cottage... and felt nothing upon seeing it. It no longer held any sway over him. The betrayal that had occurred didn’t anger him, didn’t hurt... because now he had something better, he had Nora.
Until he’d stood there, striving to look into the past, he hadn’t realized that all he cared about was the future. And that future was Nora.
When he arrived in London, he didn’t immediately call upon his mother or even bother going to his residence. He went straight to the Trewlove Hotel, dashed up the outer steps, and raced up the inner stairs until he reached the Garrisons’ suite of rooms. He knocked on the door with an urgency that was overpowering.
He needed her. He wanted her.
When a timid maid opened the door, he strove not to frighten her with his demands. “Lord Wyeth—” He squeezed his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and began again. “Lord Elverton to see Miss Garrison.”
“If you’ll be good enough to wait, my lord.” She closed the door in his face, leaving him standing mute in the hallway.
He considered knocking down the door. Good Lord, he’d never known such need.
Then it opened and her brother gaped as though Rook had risen from the dead.
“I want to see your sister.”
He shook his head. “She said she’d told you.”
“Told me what precisely?”
“She acquired investors. She’s booked passage back to America. She and Mother had a heated argument, as you can well imagine, so Nora left to take the railway to Liverpool. She boards her ship in three days.”
She had told him. He found the letter resting on the desk in his library. She’d used her writing machine to create it, all the flawless letters lined up like good soldiers going into battle.
Dearest Johnny,
Your generosity when it came to the terms of a settlement far exceeded any of our expectations. However, I can’t accept them. I need the business to flourish on my terms, through my efforts. Not because of your bounty... or charity... or guilt.
I know I should have said something the last time we were together. But these are not easy words to speak, especially when looking into your beautiful brown eyes. But I cannot marry you.
Sam focused on finding investors among the aristocracy because like our mother, he believes only the upper echelon are of value and have anything to offer. But it was a world into which I was never truly allowed entry. Until you.
